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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Discovering the Completely Obvious ... Government Officials Are UNINTENTIONALLY Doing We the People a Big Favor ... They're Reminding Us Not to Rely on Government Officials to Take Care of Us ... They're Too Busy Trying to Take Care of Themselves

Long ago George Orwell oberved that "To see what is front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."

At another time, he also said this, "We have now sunk to a depth at which re-statement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men."

And one more Orwell quote from the introduction to "Animal Farm" written in 1945 is appropriate for this particular time:

"At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is "not done" to say it ... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the high-brow periodicals."

But to me this all means that in today's ongoing widespread scrutiny of government actions in the (1) IRS, (2) Benghazi and (3) AP first amendment freedom of the press scandals, more of We the People are finally coming to grips with the reality of government intrusion and its negative effects on our personal freedoms.

The good news is that more and more Americans are wising up to the chilling effects of big government in relation to personal freedoms.

Maybe we'll even begin to connect the dots and realize that individuals are best able to make their own decisions about how to live their own lives and that increased government spending is simply another name for taxation, and therefore a limiting factor on personal freedoms.

If you want some examples, think of K-12 government schools, college loans and grants, Social Security, Medicare and nursing home subsidies through Medicaid. And now ObamaCare.

And there's lots more government "help" at the state and local level in the form of municipal and state debt as well as unfunded retirement promises for public sector employees. Taxpayers will get the bill.

In my view, limited government, prosperity, freedoms and knowledge all go together. That's nothing more than a "re-statement of the obvious," as referenced hereinabove.

"Americans are showing high levels of pessimism about their system of
government, with a notable divergence along party lines, amid gridlock in
Washington and recent high-profile controversies.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll out Wednesday found that 31% of
respondents said they were generally optimistic about the American system of
government and how well it works, with 29% saying they were generally
pessimistic.

That number is particularly
dismaying when compared with historical optimism levels. In August 1974 – two
years after Watergate and toward the end of the Vietnam War – a majority of
Americans, 55%, said they were generally optimistic about the system of
government, with 15% saying they were generally pessimistic, according to a poll
conducted at the time by the Roper Organization.

But the sharp decline since 1974 doesn’t appear to be a product only of
recent controversies. Optimism levels have been gradually declining over the
past 40 years, reaching their lowest point – 26% — in March 2011. . . .

There is a significant gap in optimism levels across the political spectrum.
The survey found that 44% of Democrats said they were generally optimistic about
the system of government, while only 19% of Republicans said the same.
Independents fell closer to the Republican side, with 23% saying they were
optimistic.

Notably, levels of pessimism among 18- to 34-year-olds are similar to those
in older age groups, a trend (that) is disconcerting as these levels are
not likely to decrease as they age. . . .

Politics sucks. So does a blind and naive dependence on government officials to act in the best interests of We the People.

But the silly reliance of far too many of us on government officals to take care of us and protect us from the daily challenges of living in a free society sucks even more.

We need a lifelong education about the natural rights and freedoms with which we begin life, and the permanent threat of an ever growing and intrusive government which will prevent us from exercising and enjoying to the fullest those natural rights and freedoms with which we begin.

Maybe more of us are coming to that realization each day. If so, that's a very good thing.